Summary: The United States Prison System

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Every American taxpayer is a stakeholder in the United States prison crisis. The combined yearly cost of the corrections department (information gathered from only 40 states where numbers were available) is 39 billion dollars (Henrickson, 2012). This budget gives the United States the distinctive honor of having, “the costliest prison system in the world” (Lindorff, 2009) and causing American citizens to pay the most per capita for their prison system. The real cost, however, is even greater. This 39 billion (in addition to the missing data) does not take into consideration the higher policing costs, the court fees and the missed tax revenue from the time that the felon could not work. These ineffective policies are costing the American taxpayers …show more content…
While millions have been incarcerated and average Americans have seen their taxes rise, the Prison Industrial Complex has made record profits. “CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) is the nation’s largest owner and operator of for-profit prisons, with annual revenues topping $1.7 billion” (Takei, 2013). Since the year 2000, GEO group stocks have risen almost 1000% (The GEO Group, 2015). This is where American tax money has gone. Far more than just corporate CEOs profit from the Prison Industrial Complex. The vast majority of those who do are simple blue collar workers. The prison guards have a vested interest in maintaining the current system, as they directly profit off of the incarceration of others. To use California as an example, “The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) staunchly defends California’s …show more content…
In this country, criminals are all viewed as psychopaths. Americans fear criminals being let out of jail because of a misguided notion put forward by the media that they will be victimized by those released. News stories read that releasing inmates “is playing Russian roulette with public safety” (“1,400 'lifers' released from California prisons in last 3 years”, 2014). Americans are in favor of ruining people's lives and keeping them in jail because of fear and prejudice. Some have argued that this is simply residual racism and a belief that criminals are minorities (Tonn, 2014). But I believe that there is a simpler solution. People are naturally afraid of what they do not understand, and a life in jail is hard to comprehend. To justify putting other people through such a horrible experience, society has created a caricature of prisoners as being evil. Society dehumanises those going through the criminal justice system so as to avoid dealing with the moral dilemmas of imprisoning non-violent offenders for decades. The system that exists in the United States today is completely immoral, and the punishments handed out for minor crimes easily qualify as cruel and
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